NEGOTIATIONS: Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, left, talks with state Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, on Tuesday. Republican lawmakers opposed a measure by Lowenthal that, if approved by the Legislature and signed by the governor, would benefit developers of an entertainment and hotel complex planned near the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. RICH PEDRONCELLI, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Major bills for the session

Prison reform: In April, lawmakers approved a $7.7 billion plan to build 53,000 new prison beds and develop rehabilitation programs. The expansion plan, which was signed by the governor, is intended to alleviate the state's severely crowded prison system and stave off a threatened federal court takeover.

Budget: Senate Republicans held up the state budget for more than a month to push for deeper spending cuts, lawsuit protections and changes to budget trailer bills. They got their wish, with the governor agreeing to veto $700 million in spending, but the impasse resulted in the third-latest budget in recent history.

Health care: Without Republican support, Democrats approved a health care reform package that requires employers to pay 7.5 percent of Social Security wages for health coverage or pay an equal amount into a trust fund. The governor has vowed to veto the proposal, saying it asks too much of employers and doesn't require that all Californians carry health insurance.

Toxics toys: AB1108, by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, bans a chemical found in plastics called phthalates from being used in toys designed for children younger than 3. Animal studies have associated testicular injury, liver injury and liver cancer with exposure to the chemical.

Car seats: AB881 by Assemblyman Gene Mullin, D-South San Francisco, requires children younger than 9 to use a car seat, starting June 30, 2008. Today children younger than 7 are required to use a car seat.

Kangaroo leather: SB880, by Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, repeals a state ban on kangaroo leather, which is used in soccer cleats.

Cloned food: SB63, by Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, requires special labeling for any food made from a cloned animal.

Bills by O.C. lawmakers

Sen. Dick Ackerman, R-Irvine: Two bills passed, one already signed. As Senate Republican leader, Ackerman also was deeply involved in negotiations over the budget and other major issues. Leaders typically don't carry many bills.

Assemblyman Jose Solorio, D-Santa Ana: Eight bills passed, three already signed. One of the signed bills was the prison reform package, which Solorio ceremonially authored as the chairman of the Assembly Public Safety Committee.

Fresh off his re-election and an active legislative session, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger opened 2007 by declaring an end to partisan bickering and promising major achievements to rival last year's infrastructure bonds, on-time budget and landmark greenhouse gas regulations.

Nine months later, the Legislature concluded its regular business Wednesday with little accomplished aside from a prison package and the third-latest budget in recent California history. So little was done this year that Schwarzenegger called a special, extended legislative session in the hopes lawmakers would come to an agreement on health care and water storage.

"I thought it was an abysmal year," said Barbara O'Connor, a political-science professor at Cal State Sacramento, adding that lawmakers didn't come to an agreement on the issues voters most care about. "I wouldn't call it a stellar session, as they say."

Insiders believe the seeds of the 2007 impasse were planted in 2006, an election year when Republican lawmakers were loath to challenge a Republican governor who cut deals with the Democrats who control the Legislature.

After the election, Assembly Republicans dumped their leader, replacing the conciliatory George Plescia of San Diego with Mike Villines of Clovis, who was viewed as more hard-line. In December, Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman of Irvine narrowly survived a challenge from Jim Battin of Palm Desert, who wanted Ackerman to be tougher with Democrats and the governor.

The shock waves of those leadership battles were felt in 2007. Villines negotiated hard on prison legislation this spring, and Ackerman and the Senate Republicans held up the state budget for more than a month to push for deeper spending cuts.

In part, those protracted negotiations ate up so many days that the Legislature didn't have time to develop health care or water-storage deals that the governor would sign. Politics, meanwhile, appear to have hampered any chance of changing how the state draws legislative and congressional districts.

But the governor's office says it's too early to assess the legislative session.

"You can't really judge the session until you see what bills we sign or veto and what happens with water and health care," said Aaron McLear, the governor's spokesman. "It's like judging the Anaheim Angels at the All-Star break."

Besides the prison package, McLear said reducing the state's operating deficit to zero and moving the presidential primary to February were successes of the session.

"There's a lot of things we already have done, but there's still a lot of work to do," he said, noting the governor now has upward of 700 bills to consider.

For his part, Ackerman said the year was undoubtedly a success for Republicans because fewer things were done.

"We look at it more from a bigger picture, as opposed to a thousand bills out there, most of which do nothing," he said. "We're in the minority, so generally we're playing defense. We're not going to have a lot of offensive wins. But I think between the budget and the prison bond, those are both very positive things."

The 2007 accomplishments of the state Legislature may not have lived up to the Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's advanced billing, but lawmakers did approve hundreds of bills this year, some of them groundbreaking. Here's a look at the legislative highlights.

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